Way back in May I wrote my first post about Google Communities in the classroom as a reflection on the wonderful Google Education on Air online conference. I presented there about my work building classroom community and engaging learners with Communities. Find that post and my GHOA at Teaching and Learning with Google Communities: A #GoogleOnAir Reflection and More. Cassie Reeder was a part of my audience and she reached out to tell me about #edcampGlobal, another massive online conference. And now, months later #ECG2015 is here! On Saturday at 11 AM EST, I will again be presenting in a GHOA about Google Communities, with the help of my best friend, Dani Raskin Kennis.

I decided to write a little about one way I use Communities in my classroom as taste of my classroom and presentation. In my classroom, Google Communities are the perfect place for sharing learning, research, and developing background knowledge. Here are two examples of how I use to Communities for

Building and Extending Student Knowledge with Google Communities

Last year, I taught an SAT/ACT Review course elective to high school upperclassmen. As part of the curriculum around 300 vocabulary words were assigned throughout the semester. To learn, practice, and apply this vocabulary, students often developed their own SAT and ACT-style multiple choice questions to learn about the test form, structure, strategies, and vocabulary.

In the task below, my co-teacher posts an assignment to our SAT/ACT Community. The pin in the top right corner of the screen shot indicates that the post has been pinned by a moderator, so it remains on the top of the Community stream.

Below, Walter posted his question and receives multiple replies. Students answer and eagerly demand feedback and offer praise. Not only are students creating questions and building their own knowledge, but they are collaborating in checking their responses in real time. I like Ethan's example because he extends the task, adding a video to complement his work, all on his own.

In the next screenshot, multiple students are collaborating to identify the parts of speech in each others' sentences using new vocabulary words. Instead of dry sentence diagramming, students are creating content, analyzing each other's work, and collaborating to extend their understanding.

This quick and easy collaboration works as a do now/anticipatory set, exit ticket, or classroom activity. Students are able to demonstrate, apply, and extend their knowledge, while adding multimedia to supplement their learning. This type of activating knowledge, creating new knowledge, and collaboration through authentic social media is one of my favorite types of activities for Communities.

Feel free to borrow, adapt, and steal--I truly think Communities are one of the most underrated Google tools around. And if you like it, check out my #edcampGlobal Google Hangout on Air or the SchoenBLOG next week for more. Thanks for reading!

I first read To Kill a Mockingbird seven years ago. For one reason or another, I never read it in high school; it wasn't until my first teaching position that I had the pleasure. In the time since, I taught the novel 2-4 times a year for five years to my tenth graders. In the past seven years, I've read Mockingbird well over a dozen times. The text moved down to the middle school, and that will make me forever sorry since it was my favorite book to teach. Needless to say, I have a close relationship with the story of Scout, Atticus, and Tom Robinson. I admired the tenacity of the young Jean Louise, Jem's struggle to become a young adult, and Atticus as a paragon of all that's right in the world. In fact, Atticus was my literary god. I used to tell students that when in doubt, Atticus had the answer. Critical Lens essay? Use Atticus' characterization and conflict. SAT essay? Atticus' closing argument will make great evidence for any topic. Have to make a tough decision? WWAD? What would Atticus do?

"Atticus, you are rewriting history."

However, Watchman isn't the Mockingbird, Maycomb, or Atticus we knew. Scout's line above summed it all up for me. Neither a sequel nor prequel but more of a draft or revision, Watchmantruly rewrote history. The Atticus Finch of Go Set a Watchman is not the Atticus I came to respect, love, and admire. But neither is his world of Maycomb and its history. Despite being a purported early draft of what became Mockingbird, Watchman is a different text entirely. In an effort to rewrite the novel from the younger Scout's perspective, the story seemed to change. Whether or not this was a conscious effort by Lee to shift the messages of the text is perhaps the most interesting question for me. Is it the Atticus of Mockingbird or Watchman who represents the author's true voice? Equal rights for all and special privileges for none, or a much more complex morality tale?

For better or worse, what absolutely fascinates me about Watchman are the differences in character and plot. The most important and obvious: Atticus won the trial of Tom Robinson. It's almost glossed over and not discussed nearly enough for me, but Tom Robinson was found innocent in the world of Watchman. I so desperately want to know what happened next. This world of Maycomb that almost was and now is will compel me to read and reread for years to come. Of course, we have the former KKK-member Atticus to content with, too, but oddly enough, this is less of an issue for me. Here's why:

To Kill a Mockingbird is Scout's story, and is appropriately written from the perspective of a young girl who has a blind faith in her father, the only true role model she has. In Watchman, Lee writes, "She looked at Maycomb, and her throat tightened: Maycomb was looking back at her. Go away, the old buildings said. There is no place for you here. You are not wanted. We have secrets."

The Atticus of Mockingbird is a moral paragon because his young daughter thinks it to be so. Whether or not she is correct is a much more complex question, but the simple fact that the entire story is seem through Scout's eyes adds such moral complexity to it's retelling in the not-so-sequel. Has Atticus changed? Or did we only ever know the Atticus who Scout knew? This article from Jezebel's title contends, "Atticus Was Always a Racist: Why Go Set a Watchman Is No Surprise." While I don't agree with everything, it's an interesting take. Who is Atticus Finch? The conflicted, complex, and maybe realistic old man or the dedicated, moral, and just lawyer and father?

In Watchman, Atticus tells his daughter, "Jean Louise, I'm only trying to tell you some plain truths. You must see things as they are, as well as they should be." What is the plain truth here?

The truth, for me, is that the corruption of Atticus isn't as important to me as the growth of Scout. After all these years, it's now Scout's turn and her real coming of age. Even with her 26-years of wisdom and despite living in the big city of New York, it's coming home that leads to her loss of innocence and reckoning with her father. The trial of Tom Robinson from her childhood no longer has that power since now Atticus won, changing the world of Maycomb we knew. No longer is this story about the coming of age of the precocious young girl but her struggles to reconcile the ideal of Atticus we used to share with the the morally complex old man that only a more adult Scout can begin to understand.

Despite the contradictions, confusion, and complexities, I enjoyed Watchman for the most part. I was fascinated by it the whole way through. The adult Jean Louise was a well-realized evolution of the tomboy we know and love, and to see her true coming of age was heartbreaking and nostalgia-ridden. The ideas and even dialogue that called back to Mockingbird both warmed and broke my heart. When Uncle Jack asks her, "What kind of people were we, Jean Louise? What kind of people are we?" and she replies, "I thought we were just people," I wanted to stand up and cheer. While I missed Jem and was desperate to learn the fate of Boo Radley, to read Aunt Alexandra try to again tell Scout about the facts of life and the reality of being a Finch was great. Even better was the realization: "No--I'm quite sure you know those facts already."

For more reading, here are some interesting articles about Watchman. Please share if you have more worthwhile reading or commentary!

These characters live in the world of To Kill a Mockingbird that could have been, and maybe almost was. They are the characters as real to me as my friends and colleagues and have aged and grown with heart and wisdom. The evolution--or devolution--of Atticus Finch, too, certainly raises questions and controversy, but adds a complexity that the now adult Scout's journey requires to ring true. In Mockingbird, she came of age in her understanding of race, gender, and identity to the best of her childhood ability. Her father, though, was the admirable but unrealistic static hope of Maycomb. And while I'm not quite sure I like it, the characters are suddenly more real and flawed, living in a world of grey rather than that of black and white from Maycomb long ago.

The struggle to engage and empower students in authentic writing and peer response while teaching form and structure...

In this week's scholarly article pursuits, I read the March and July 2015 issues of English Journal. I've been a member of NCTE for a while and have a stack of these fantastic journals to catch up on, so I'm dedicating some of my reading to keeping up to date with research and practice for secondary English education.

An article that stuck with me in this batch is "Peer Response, Remixed: Authentic Peer Response through Audio Technology" by Michael Hoffman in the March issue. Hoffman posits that most peer response is too scaffolded and automated, to the point of being "student proof" and "manifestly free of investment." By focusing on structure, grammar, and mechanics, often through checklists, students (and perhaps teachers) "do not address the heart of writing: the message that students seek to impart through their text."

One solution Hoffman offers is the remix, a concept which fascinates me. Instead of a canned and automated peer response, students create something new by augmenting the original text with something else. He compares this to the Beastie Boys' album, Paul's Boutique, which samples from TV, movies, music, and sound effects. "The remix in the classroom becomes a means for students to explore meaning and to create meaning that is their own. The anchor text remains in the possession of the original author, but that cannot be said of the remix. It is now a joint production, in which the student as reader and interpreter shares creative authorship and authority." Basically, the responder uses audio clips and additions to remix a recording of the original work. The writer records a reading of the piece, which the second student remixes.

While this ideas fascinates me, it doesn't really serve the same purpose as a typical peer response or evaluation. Creation is essential but so is editing, revision, and evaluation. I've used a variety of peer review strategies over the past few years, ranging from checklists and conferencing and Google Forms to collaborative Google Docs editing and unstructured free responses. I agree with Hoffman's conceits, that these strategies often lead to a narrow and closed response, I'm not sure the remix addresses the real goal of most peer review. However, it still sounds like a lot of fun and a worthwhile act of creation. Instead of responding to mechanics and ideas, the students are truly creating something new. That said, I wish the article had links to some of the audio products his students produced through this work.

Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies" from Paul's Boutique samples from over a dozen songs and has nearly the same number of allusions, according to this list. Hoffman mentions the band's work on this album as an example of a successful remix. Album art from Wikipedia.

What really interested me in this article are the questions that Hoffman raises and hints at regarding student writing and peer response. He argues that peer response efforts should focus on the "most essential question for an author: Does this text achieve what I intended?" I'm wondering about the balance between teaching students to write in approved forms and structures versus allowing them to choose the form to follow function. But how often do our students truly understand their function or purpose? How do we help them get to this metacognitive point?

I found his article really interesting but it left me with a lot of questions to consider moving in to next school year:

How do we teach students to understand their purpose and intent as writers?

Don't students often have the same overall intent? If all students are writing an argumentative essay, the intent is the same. Is this okay? Should the form and structure be the same, too?

How do we balance the need for student empowerment, voice, and freedom with structure and scaffolding? How much freedom should we allow in writing?

Is it better to start off by offering students freedom or restriction in writing? Where do we begin?

When and how are peer responses most valuable? How do we teach students to make positive and authentic contributions?

I typically teach by students writing acronyms to help them structure their writing and find that it helps most students stay focused and organized. These acronyms tend to limit digression but not the development, unless the writer chooses to use them exclusively. It's an understand the rules before you can break them approach, and while it's been successful for me, I'm not sure that it's the best strategy. It may not be broken but I'm not sure it doesn't need some fixing.

I want to think about these questions and issues and write about my answers one day, but for now, I'm purposefully leaving them unanswered. If you have comments, ideas, or answers, I would love to hear them. Please comment or reach out on Twitter!

Last school year, I came across the quote above and shared it with my students often. "All of us are smarter than one of us." I can't find a clear author, and I've seen a few variations, but it's been a driving concept in my classroom. Before you ask the teacher, ask each other. We learn better together than we do alone. It's probably been useful every day since, and I plan to have it at the top of my syllabus next year.

One of the best parts of being a connected educator is being able to take that advice. Whenever I have a question, a problem, or need help, I know I can turn to my #PLN on Twitter for guidance. It's been great practice for me and a strong model to bring back to my classroom to show my colleagues and students the power of being connected. In May, I asked for #edtech advice to help give ideas to new teachers in a training, and I compiled those Tweets in a blog post: Crowdsourcing #EdTech Advice For New Teachers.

Yesterday, I took the same idea to crowdsource advice for hosting a successful edcamp. I've written about #edcampMVille before, but as we're six weeks away or so, I want to make sure we're ready to move forward. Find more information about #edcampMVille at edcampmville.weebly.com if you're interested. The event is on 8/29 in Purchase, NY. The organizing team is great and I love our plans, but I thought it could help to consult the experts. I reached out to some organizers of past edcamps, like EdCampNJ, EdCampHV, EdCampLDR, and EdCampPhilly, along with my Twitter #PLN, and their advice is below.

Thank you to everyone who contributed. I was impressed with the responses I got in one day and would love to add more, so please comment or Tweet at me!

Welcome to the end, ladies and gentlemen. Next time you read my writing about #20Time, it will likely be in a more cleverly named series about my second year implementing a genius hour-like project. Next Time #20Time might have a decent ring to it, right? 2nd Time #20Time, not so much.

After the process was concluded, the products turned in, and presentations were complete came the final part in my students' #20Time work: reflections. All of the advice I read about this work stressed the value of the student reflection and I was surprised at how incredible and important I found this to truly be. I decided to break my students' reflections down into sections:

Student Rubrics, where students would grade their own work on process, product, and effort.

Reflection, asking students for written responses to a series of questions to better examine their meta-cognition.

Blog Post, writing a final blog post highlighting the meaning they did or did not find in their work.

Find the actual Reflection doc here. These three components added up to the 100-point grade for the project. Students were graded on how they evaluated their own work and growth, not how I did. This led to some fantastic results from my perspective:

Most students were fair but challenging graders. They held themselves to high standards.

Reflection is wonderful when students take it seriously. The most rewarding part, by far, was reading about students' self-identified growth, challenges, successes, and failures.

My students learned a lot more than I realized.

In fact, as I read these reflections, I found myself taking notes on students' responses and documenting their advice and feedback, specifically to this: What advice would you have for students and for teachers who are doing #20Time projects in the future? What would you tell them that would make the project go more smoothly or be more successful?

Find excerpts about what they had to say below. It's a bit long but I found that their writing was so much more interesting than mine, so I decided to let this post run wild.

Advice for Students:

"I would tell students doing the 20Time project to make sure they plan ahead and start on their project immediately. I would also suggest that students have at least 2 backup experts instead of just one, just in case one of them falls through or they decide to alter their topic. In addition to these tips I would tell other students to pick their partners wisely; without their full support and/or ideas you may not get anywhere with your topic."

"My advice to other students is to do your blog posts, it’s really not that hard, really think about your topic and pick something you're interested in. Also pick a “doable” topic. Dont pick something that professionals don't know."

"Advice that I have for students doing 20% Time in the future is to also plan ahead. Make a schedule that you will not stray away from, and use the time given to you wisely. Do not fall behind and be assertive in your actions. Have a thorough plan and an idea of what you’re trying to do in advance, so that you do not have to rush or fall behind toward the end. The project will take up more than 20% of your time, meaning that you have to do it at home. Lastly, do everything well and do something that you are interested in."

"I would tell the student to put a lot of thought into what they would like to create or research. I would also tell them to think outside of the box, but to have a realistic goal for their final project depending on how much time they have to actually create their final project."

"I would tell students to not look at this project as a forced project, but instead as a place to dedicate your passions in investigating."

"DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!! Seriously, it won’t be good, you’ll want to have all data collection as soon as possible, so you don’t have to scram to gather information in the last few weeks. Remember that you have other classes, with other assignments to complete, so plan accordingly."

"The number one piece of advice that I would give to kids next year is to do something they are truly interested in. Once I became interested in the topic that I was pursuing it no longer felt like work but I enjoyed researching. 20 time may seem boring at first, as it did for me, but afterwards I felt more knowledgeable about a topic. If I were to do 20 time over, I would have looked more places for research. The majority of my research consisted on newspaper articles, images and YouTube videos. Had I had more time or started sooner, I found out there were documentaries as well as books on the topic. Reading both would have allowed me to find out even more on the topic and master it well. Overall, I really enjoyed the 20 time experience and I am happy to have done it. "

"Some advice i would give to students is to really enjoy this project it’s a once in a lifetime project where you can learn about something you’re interested in. So put lots of effort into this to make the outcome in the end a great one. Gain as much knowledge as possible so you can come out of the project saying that was worth it. Most importantly just have fun."

"I would tell other students that changes will occur and that there will be obstacles from your plan, or throughout your project. If there is an obstacle and you’re truly passionate about your topic, try going around it rather than just completely giving it up. Also, your project most likely will not come out exactly what you had originally planned because things will change. To make your project go smoothly, ask your expert for help whenever possible. Feeling dumb for 5 minutes is so much better than feeling dumb for days and months till the day your project is due. Always stay in touch with the expert and actually put time into thinking what you will be doing. If you’re going to do the project without thinking how, then you most likely shouldn’t go after it. Always have a plan in mind and have multiple plans in case your original plan doesn’t work out. Most importantly, ASK YOUR TEACHER FOR HELP IF YOU ARE STUCK."

"Although you will get assignments to write on your blog, use your blog as a journal don’t be afraid to write down what you’ve done to get closer to your goals, your feelings, etc. Definitely planning ahead and not waiting till last minute will make your project go more smoothly and successfully."

Advice for Teachers:

"I would advise teachers to make sure their students have enough time in class and outside of school to work with their partners. I would also suggest that teachers give the entire outline of the project when students first start working so they know ahead of time what’s going to be happening."

"Teachers who want students to produce something meaningful must give them more than enough time to create something worthwhile. Students can’t have free range in their project, so be sure to set due dates along the way to keep students in check."

"I think the idea of pursuing a project that is purely based on interests was hard for some students to understand because we normally don't do that in a classroom setting. The teacher has to make sure that is clear that there are no set requirements to this project and everyone will develop different ideas and products."

"The advice i would give to the teachers who are doing the 20time projects in the future is that you have to tell your students that it is okay to end up not having a solution because when i wanted to do a 20time project on processors, it is because i was passionate about it and i wanted to learn about them, but i was not able to do it on something i was passionate about because it needed to be something that had a problem and we needed to find a solution. I think the kids should be allowed to do something they are very passionate about so they can learn more about it and not be confined to something that needs a solution, isn’t that the true definition of 20time? The passion to learn something you are interested in."

"My advice would be to reconsider the blog posts. Pesonally I don’t really see how that has anything to do with our projectrs, and it would also make the project go more smoothly, because than we don’t have to worry about how long the blog has to be and about the grade we get on it.We should only have to worry about our project, and at least have the freedom to organize it however we would like."

"I would start the project way earlier in the school year. everything was very cramped and rushed I feel. Also I think you should somewhat narrow the options people can have, when it is so broad I found it so hard on what to choose as my subject."

"The advice I would give teachers who are doing 20time project would be to let the students decide the topic of their interest so they can learn and work more on their topic of interest. The more the student is passionate and fascinated by their topic the more they will do a better job. If you assign a student a project to work on you don’t know if he will enjoy doing it or not. A teacher should let her student know he/she can get help from you as well. I also feel like teachers don’t need to put a date on when something should be done because you don’t know whether you have accomplished your goal or not. A teacher should be supportive of any topic the students chooses to do because it may cause them to not want to do their original topic if a teacher doesn’t support his/her idea. I found that making a blog on my topic made my information more organized which was very useful and helpful."

There's more where that came from. If you're interested in reading it, please let me know.

AKA How I Want to Build a Better #edcampMVille

Like so many of my #PLN around the world, I had the pleasure of attending #edcampldr on Saturday, an edcamp focusing on leadership that took place in 15-or-so locations worldwide. I was eager to attend for a few reasons:

I liked the idea of a focused topic. I wasn't sure what to expect with the "leadership" focus, but liked that there was a focus for conversation and learning.

I've never presented at an edcamp and wanted to give it a shot (and did!).

Location, location, location. The North Jersey location was fairly close and convenient for my drive.

And of course, the people. Once again, I had a great opportunity to connect with many of my Twitter friends, hang out, share, and learn.

I am one of the organizers for #edcampMVille later this summer, so attending and presenting at a big edcamp was a great opportunity for me to think about what I love about good education and edtech conferences. While I loved the connecting and learning, I left thinking about my favorite parts of past conferences that I would want to include in our planning for #edcampMVille on August 29 in Purchase, NY. Register for #edcampMVille atedcampmville.weebly.com

So, fresh from #edcampldr, I'm reflecting on things that make a good conference great. Share yours and help me help make #edcampMVille even better!

1. Good Food. Learning and connecting all day can be surprisingly exhausting for both the body and mind. Like the great Ron Swanson says, "why does anyone in the world eat anything but breakfast food?" and a good breakfast is the best way to start any conference day. Anyone ever go to a LHRIC event at Edith Macy? Now that's impressive food. Then there's nothing like a strong lunch to give you a second wind for a great afternoon. Bonus points from me if you keep the coffee on all day, too.

2. A place to hang out. I'm so thankful for all of the wonderful presenters and leaders at many of the conferences I've attended. I've learned so much and connected with so many people. But sometimes, you just need a break. I love when a conference has somewhere to just hang out, talk, relax, and refocus. Whether it's the Maker Space at #TCT15, the "extra room" at #edcampldr, or the welcoming cafeteria at #Ednado, it's great to be able to take a break as needed and have somewhere to do so.

One of my favorite parts of #edcampldr was hanging out in the cafeteria with my wonderful #EdJusticeLeague friends, Chris Nesi and AJ Bianco, talking about blogging. We spend a good 45 minutes sharing, collaborating, and learning from each other. I'm thankful for conferences that are well scheduled and packed with learning but love the edcamp model that provides us with opportunities to find or make the opportunities for learning you need.

3. Friendly Competition. A raffle's always fun but I loved the way #Ednado used Remind for a scavenger hunt to earn extra raffle tickets. I was also a big fan of the Twitter leaderboard which promoted backchanneling and sharing of learning. Many conferences promote shared Google Docs for note taking, which is another great tool.

4. Sharing Good Stuff. So much great sharing goes on at conferences, and like the work that goes on in our classrooms and schools, it deserves to be highlighted. It's great when participants and attendees share their thoughts, learning, and what they like from keynotes and presentations, but I also love when the conference has ways to make this happen, too. Demo Slams, Photo Booths, like at GAFE Summits and #Ednado and photographers like at #edcampldr make this easy and fun.

5. The Rule of Two Feet. This philosophy is one part of what makes an edcamp truly special. So often, conferences have great learning but a rigid structure and atmosphere that makes you feel the need to finish out every session you attend. It would be rude to leave, even if you're not learning, right? Not at an edcamp. Edcamps are built on the idea that if you are not learning, find somewhere else you will be. Sometimes it's hard to predict which session is right for you and I so appreciate the fact that instead of attending one session, I can attend as many as I want and find the learning that really works for me. A good conference allows the participant to really personalize the learning and make sure no time is wasted.

Of course, engaging and worthwhile content and expert presenters are important, too. But I'll assume we have those already. Here are five relatively small things that have made my conference-going experience great. What are yours?

Tweet or comment and let me know what you liked about #edcampldr or other recent conferences. What should we do to get #edcampMVille right?

This week I began my more scholarly reading and writing by reading the April 2015 issue of the ISTE publication, entrsekt. I enjoyed many of the articles and found a common theme between a few: students' online lives. One article, "Social Media Presence is Modern Day Resume" by Patrick Larkin, posed the question in the image above: are our students receiving the support they need to put their best digital foot forward?

Larkin discussed the role of social media in schools, arguing that "social media presence is modern-day resume." While I'm not sure that the traditional resume is going away, an individual's online presence is increasingly important. Last year, I focused a portion of my SAT/ACT Review course on #futureready lessons. In one lesson, I asked students to Google themselves after watching the TED Talk from Juan Enriquez, "Your Digital Life, Permanent as a Tattoo." A handful of students proudly proclaimed--look, there's nothing on me! Which, in my opinion, might soon be as bad if not worse than a negative online presence.

Our students use social media--see the ASCD infographic at the bottom of this post for some statistics--and need to learn how to have a productive online presence. Larkin writes, "students will be judged on their ability to use these tools proficiently enough to leave a mark that will allow others to find them, see who they are and determine what they are capable of doing." While I agree with this assertion, whose job is it to teach this?

Clearly, students need to learn how to use social media responsibly and develop a positive online presence. I believe that all teachers should be teaching digital citizenship as technology and web 2.0 is integrated into more and more instruction. If students' (and our) digital footprints become our resume, how can we better prepare them in our classrooms for this challenge. While I have a few ideas, for now I'm pondering and questioning. Feel free to chime in with your ideas in the comments.

Challenge: Google yourself and see what you find. What kind of digital footprint have you left? What kind of impact does it have?

Larkin continues, "It is our job as educators to ensure that when potential suitors start looking for background information online about our students, they find impressive creations." This might be my favorite quote from the article; he pushes for effective online portfolios and students creating meaningful content. I'm a huge proponent of these ideas and focused a lot of my school year on promoting student creation. In fact, I blogged about it first in April with "Students Must Create!" and again in June with a guest post for the site FreeTech4Teachers, titled "Transforming Learning Through Student Content Creation." Check out those posts to see my experience and perspective on these ideas.

I constantly tell my students that I want them to leave my class with more than essays they will probably forget about and books they may not have really read. Instead, they should be studying content and applying skills in ways that are meaningful to them. They should be creating things that can leave the classroom with them and help them prepare for their futures. To this end, I plan to utilize portfolios next year to document student growth and progress. Not only will my students create, but they will have a record of that creation, along with the process and reflection throughout the year.

I want to start off my school year by making Twitter, Blogging, and Google Communities a regular and essential part of our classroom and to leverage the power of social media in my teaching. But more than that, I need to rethink how to use these tools to teach responsibility, digital citizenship, and to help students develop positive online resumes, portfolios, and footprints. As ready as I am to use these tools, I don't want to forget that using technology or social media well, and using it well for learning and futures are very different things. Thanks entrsekt, for making me think critically about the role social media has and could have to move my classroom forward.

This infographic from ASCD is from 2011 but the trends are clear. Students use social media and want it to be a part of their learning. I hope schools are finding more ways to overcome the cautions listed at the bottom.

It's now been a few weeks since school ended and I have new perspective on my students' work. Going back to review some of it, I'm still wildly proud of what they accomplished. One of my biggest successes was how many students explained their challenges. One student said, "I didn't accomplish my goal because it was too big and wasn't realistic in the end," and continued to share what she did learn and accomplish. For me, that's a huge victory. The students learned, reflected, and grew.

I required students to present part of their projects and products to the class, calling it a project snapshot. The reason for this is simple: we ran out of time. Next year, I want to plan more carefully so students can plan and deliver TED Talks about their work. I want more public learning, consistent blogging, and collaboration with the world. I want to do better to help my students do better.

Until then, though, here are some highlights from my students' work. At the link below, find a sheet with students' research questions, topics, blogs, proposals, annotated bibliographies, and projects. I wanted to document all of their work in an organized way so that I have models and resources to share and to use in class next year.

Elliot, Greg, and Yoo Shin researched how motivation affects the academic success of students. They conducted original research and surveyed hundreds of Ossining students using a Google Form. They also submitted their work to the Genius Hour Fair. They are #17 in the 13-16 category. Vote for their work here!

Nick's Guide to New Earth City 2187 investigates the possibility of our future living on Mars. He wanted to know if colonies on Mars are possible.

Calvin and Alex researched obesity and fast food. Find their presentation here. Here's a screenshot of their work.

Somari created a website on Weebly to help people learn more about how to succeed in an acting career. Her website is awesome. Check it out at http://centerstg.weebly.com.

Reid looked at the future of our town, Ossining, and the role of Sing Sing Prison. His extensive research and plans can be found here.

#20Time excited me and made me so passionate about my students' work. I know many of them felt the same, which is exciting for a teacher. Next time, I'll share some of their feedback for both teachers and students from the final part of our work, the reflections.

The Schoenblog: Returned, Revamped, and Refocused

I had a good run of regular posts here but completely fell off with blogging at the end of the school year. Wrapping up the year, grading finals, APPR, traveling for conferences, and the excitement of summer came together to pull me away from blogging. It's been a few weeks and I'm back and ready to do better.

I started this blog as a place to reflect, share, and grow, but I didn't realize how important that reflection would be. I always talk about making students' work authentic by providing audience and purpose, and the same applies here. When I write about the things I want to do better and publish the blog post, that writing becomes a sort of contract with myself and with my readers, as few as you might be so far. That makes this real and meaningful for me in a way I didn't expect.

This fall, I'm starting a doctoral program at Manhattanville College in Educational Leadership. I started with administrative classes in June and will have completed 9 credits and taught 3 by the end of this month. I like being a student, and I'm excited to be back in school and in a program that's meaningful. I'm eager to develop my learning, voice, and expertise to help make change in my school, practice, and world. The best advice I found to prepare to do better is simple: read and write more.

And here's my plan to do so: I have a pile of English Journals and ISTE publications sitting on my desk. Every week, I will read one and write about an article here. There's a handful of books I have to read in the fall. I want to start now, and respond to them here, too. Finally, I want to continue to blog about my plans for my teaching, my ideas, and my reflections more regularly. Read and write every week.

While I was #NotAtISTE15 this year, I had the pleasure of attending #TCT15 (Tomorrow's Classrooms Today) and #HackEd15 in Philadelphia. I got to promote Remind, learn a lot, and most importantly, get the highest score in the world in RaspberryPi. I also had a great time connecting face to face with my #PLN, hanging out with the #EdJusticeLeague, and exploring Philly.

At TCT, I attending a session on "Secrets of a Scholastic Blogger" with Meghan Everette . She helped reinforce a lot of ideas I needed to hear about how to be a better blogger and attract a consistent audience. She tweeter out her presentation, which can he found here.

Here was some of her advice that I plan to follow:

Write shorter posts of 400-700 words, with choppier paragraphs and an active voice.

Use pictures to grab the readers' attention--even pull quotes from your own work.

Create titles that are 7-8 words with colons or semi-colons and use key words that will be repeated in the post.

People spend 3 seconds deciding their level of interest and 79% of the time they scan the article, which you are probably doing right now. I hope you find this blog worth your time and interest.

So here is my plan and my commitment to my readers, my blog, and most of all, myself:

I will blog at least every Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of the summer. Meghan also spoke about the value of mapping out a plan for your posts, which I've done. I want to read every day and blog multiple times per week.

About Me

Adam is a high school teacher, technology coach, Google for Education Certified Trainer, and EdD candidate. He is one of the National School Board Association's “20 to Watch” Educational Technology Leaders for 2016. He is also the co-founder of The Education Calendar, a crowdsourced map and calendar of education events worldwide. Adam teaches in New York in a 1:1 Chromebook classroom and blogs about teaching and educational technology at aschoenbart.com. He can be reached at aschoenbart@gmail.com and would love to connect on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.